Today is day one of the school and pre-school summer holidays and apart from the two days a week that Taylor will be with his childminder I’ll have both boys at home. I’ll be working throughout the hols and as ever am supremely thankfully that I am my own boss and that I’ll be able to work flexible hours around the kid. There will be many early mornings and late nights over the next six weeks but I like a challenge and previous summers haven’t beaten me yet!
Due to changes with husband’s job recently we’ll have to tighten our belts somewhat over the coming months however being of a moneysaving mind anyway and being no stranger to frugal living we see this as a challenge as opposed to something negative.
I’ll keep posting as we move through the summer about saving money on food, treats, activities for the boys and more and perhaps some of these posts will be useful for others?
Here’s to a fabulous fun and frugal family summer holiday!
Dropping down a brand, shopping around, meal planning and being clever with leftovers are all part of how we are saving money this summer.
The expense in our household that is rising the fastest is the grocery bill. I suspect this is the case with many families.
I hate waste and so have become pretty savvy with using the leftovers however changing the way I shop has made the biggest impact on food shopping costs.
Meat is notoriously expensive however I have found that the most economic way for me to find quality meat is via an online butcher.
Buying Meat Online I recommend two meat retailers, Clare Barry (check out the “Green” offers especially) and Meatpacks (see below order) and I alternate between the two dependant on what I need and to take advantage of offers. This week I bought 6kg of meat which I have portioned up into 18 meals and popped in the freezer for £51.22 delivered as you can see below. Yes the delivery seems steep however the meat comes properly packed in temperature controllled packaging and even with this cost my meat still works out cheaper than it would at my local butcher. If you and a family member both ordered within one order you could also divide up the delivery cost.
My most recent meat order from Meatpacks
Quality Meat
We’ve all seen the shock TV exclusives about the rubbish that is found in processed food and even supermarket meat may be injected with water and who knows what else to bulk it out and preserve it. The meat I get from the online butcher is free from all of the artificial rubbish so you pay only for proper meat. An additional benefit to this is that when you get a chicken breast from a butcher it doesn’t magically halve in size when cooked as the water evaporates.
For between £50 and £60 a month I can fill my freezer with 20-22 meals worth of meat for four (two adults and two children). Our other 8-10 meals are made up with fish or are vegetarian meals.
Where do you get your meat from? Would you consider using an online butcher? If you already do is there someone else that you would recommend?
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